Chapter 444 --444
Chapter 444: Chapter-444
Her breath caught in her throat. Her fingers slipped from her wrist because her hand began to tremble—a physical manifestation she had never experienced in her entire life.She looked at Julian. She looked at his shaking shoulders, the tears spilling through his fingers, the absolute devastation radiating from his fragile frame.
’The data is corrupt,’ her mind attempted to process, but the thoughts were moving too fast, colliding against the heavy, suffocating ache in her chest. ’This is not a rare neurological disease. A physical ailment does not scale its severity based on the auditory output of a single subject.’
She slowly stood up from her chair, her movements losing their perfect, measured rhythm. She rounded the desk, stepping into his personal space.
"Julian," she said. Her voice wasn’t its usual, perfectly flat line. It was slightly lower, carrying a strange, uncalculated weight.
Julian didn’t look up. He kept his face buried in his hands, turning his head away from her. "Leave me alone. Just... sign the papers and let me go back to my quarters."
Elara reached out. Her hand hovered in the air for a fraction of a second—an uncharacteristic hesitation—before she placed her palm flat against his chest, right over his racing heart.
Julian stiffened, his hands slowly dropping from his face. His eyes, red-rimmed and wide with shock, locked onto hers.
"Your heart is beating at one hundred and forty-two beats per minute," Elara stated softly, her vacant eyes scanning his face, tracking the path of his tears. "And mine..." She took his trembling hand and forcibly pressed it against the left side of her own chest, right over the heavy, stabbing pain. "...is mimicking your rhythm. The thermal anomaly has increased by a margin that defies physical logic."
Julian stared at her, his breath trembling as he felt the wild, erratic thumping beneath her velvet gown. It wasn’t the steady, mechanical pulse of the cold Regent he knew. It was fast, chaotic, and desperately loud.